The highest accolade we bestow on artists in our community is selection for the Mary Liz Memorial Masters Exhibition. This annual staple showcases the work of rare talents — and the 19th edition is no exception. JESSE VANDENBURGH has shown with us for the better part of four decades, even as his canvases have evolved in intriguing ways from pure realism to an expressionism uniquely his own. JEFF THOMAS invented his own approach to painting, just as distinctive: his “hanger paintings,” which start with ideas captured in photographs he has taken from the 1970s to today. Along the way, Jeff’s body of work has grown with the recent addition of wood sculptures that evoke his own log cabin home. These two true Masters, while they will remain this year’s Mary Liz Fellows, will have to make way for the arrival of BRICK BY BRICK 2 on Saturday, so you only have a few precious days to take in their work in person.
